Baku GP: Nakamura, Svidler Winners in Round 2

On the second day at the Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan there were also two winners: Hikaru Nakamura and Peter Svidler.

In a Dutch Leningrad, Nakamura outplayed Dmitry Andreikin of Russia, who also lost yesterday. Svidler defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a Queen's Gambit Declined.

The FIDE Grand Prix has always suffered a bit from an identity crisis. The first series was marred by the withdrawal of both host cities and players, and then there was the continuous confusion with the (now defunct) Grand Slam. Simply put: chess fans didn't know what it was about, and therefore didn't care too much.

It's a pity, since these tournaments are of the highest caliber, and therefore some good games each round are almost guaranteed. (Besides, the revived Agon company is putting some effort in making everything look better too. Great!)

The four draws were all very interesting, but let's start with the decisive games. The first winner of the day was Peter Svidler, who defeated local hero Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Commentator GM Emil Sutovsky called it a "convincing victory," but Svidler said: “Not really, I spoilt it quite badly. (...) Shakhriyar just missed Bd6.”

Yesterday, Hikaru Nakamura said that he was mostly trying to play “a good game,” and it looks like he succeeded the very next round. It must be said that Dmitry Andreikin did not play a good game, but still, the American's choice of the Dutch, a sign of fighting spirit, worked out well and Nakamura simply played a lot of good moves.

What about Fabiano Caruana? Well, the gap with Magnus Carlsen in the live ratings is slightly bigger again after the new world number two drew with Boris Gelfand.

At 46, the Israeli GM is clearly the oldest participant, but so far age doesn't seem to play a role at all. In mutual time trouble, both players missed some tactics, but all in all it was a good game.

Drawing Gelfand in #BakuGP R2, @FabianoCaruana continues his unbeaten streak - now 23 games since the #ChessOlympiad loss to @MagnusCarlsen.

— top40chess.com ♜ (@top40chess) October 3, 2014

“A hard-fought game that ended in a deserved draw” is how Rustam Kasimdzhanov summarized his battle with Teimour Radjabov.

In a Berlin Ending, the Uzbek GM found an absolutely great move which, however, wasn't as strong as he thought, as he said afterward. Still, you might want to try and see if you can find it:

What did White play?

After the move (see below in the game), a tactical sequence resulted in a rook ending with an edge for White, but Radjabov held it.

For the second day in a row, Sergey Karjakin got into time trouble, but this time it was only as a result of lots of calculating at the board. A complicated Queen's Indian became quite sharp when White started an attack around move 30. Also in time trouble, Grischuk missed a win on at least two occasions and so the game ended in a draw.

The longest game, Leinier Dominguez vs Evgeny Tomashevsky, went on for more than seven hours. At the press conference the Russian GM complimented his opponent: “He showed a lot of fighting spirit. He found new resources one time by another.”

And indeed, even with just one queen and rook and three pawns for both sides, Dominguez continued setting problems and in fact did reach a winning position but then he was too tired to find the winning idea.

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | Round 2 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	Pts	SB
1	Caruana,F	2844	2948				½						1			1.5/2	1.25
2	Svidler,P	2732	2954			½								1		1.5/2	1.25
3	Nakamura,H	2764	2917		½										1	1.5/2	0.75
4	Gelfand,B	2748	2973	½											1	1.5/2	0.75
5	Dominguez,L	2751	2704						½	½						1.0/2	1.00
6	Kasimdzhanov,R	2706	2738					½				½				1.0/2	1.00
7	Tomashevsky,E	2701	2774					½			½					1.0/2	1.00
8	Grischuk,A	2797	2734							½			½			1.0/2	0.75
9	Radjabov,T	2726	2735						½					½		1.0/2	0.75
10	Karjakin,S	2767	2630	0							½					0.5/2	0.50
11	Mamedyarov,S	2764	2539		0							½				0.5/2	0.50
12	Andreikin,D	2722	1956			0	0									0.0/2

2014 Grand Prix, Baku | Schedule & Pairings

The total prize fund is €120,000. The games start each day at 15:00 local time which is 12:00 in Amsterdam, 11:00 in London, 06:00 in New York, 03:00 in Los Angeles and 20:00 in Sydney. The last round starts two hours earlier. The tournament website provides prodive live commentary by GMs Emil Sutovsky and GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko which can also be followed on Chess.com/TV! The winner and second placed player in the overall final standings of the Grand Prix will qualify for the Candidates’ Tournament to be held in the last quarter of 2015 or the first half of 2016. | Games via TWIC